MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) _ Garth Brooks ended his New York Mets career without a hit. Joe McEwing began his with one.

McEwing, acquired Saturday from St. Louis for Jesse Orosco, led off the game with a single scored on Benny Agbayani's hit as the Mets beat the Marlins 3-2 Sunday.

Starter Bobby J. Jones held Florida to three hits in six shutout innings, and the Marlins didn't get any hits after that until a three-hit ninth that included Mark Smith's homer.

Smith, fighting for a roster spot, is batting .500 with 17 hits in 34 at-bats. A 1991 Baltimore Orioles draft pick, he played in Japan last year.

``Mark's doing an outstanding job at the plate for us,'' Marlins manager John Boles said. ``You'd have to be crazy not to see that. The way he's swinging the bat right now, he's going to help us when the season starts.''

Brooks, who was scheduled to return to Nashville, Tenn., after the game, finished spring training 0-for-17, leaving him with an .026 career spring average. Brooks was 1-for-22 (.045) last spring with the San Diego Padres.

Brooks, who joined the Mets to raise money for his Touch 'em All Foundation that gave $1.8 million to children's charities in 1999, drew a walk on four pitches against Antonio Alfonseca in the sixth inning.

He drew the loudest and longest ovation of the game.

Alfonseca is believed to have spread a mumps-like virus to Marlins teammates Alex Fernandez, Dan Miceli, Armando Almanza and Brant Brown.

The four players remained quarantined Sunday, and no one else has shown symptoms of having contracted the virus since the players were sent home for at least two days on Saturday.

``There's nothing we can do to prevent it from spreading,'' Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski said. ``We could very easily have more guys come down with symptoms because they've all been exposed.''